CAMARILLO — The Ventura County Community Foundation and the Ventura County Housing Trust Fund have teamed up to create the first permanent revolving fund in Ventura County dedicated to building farmworker housing, the organizations reported Tuesday in media release.
The $100,000 in the fund will be made available as loans to developers who build units for agricultural laborers and their families. As developers repay their loans to the Housing Trust Fund, the money will be cycled back into the pool to fund future projects.
“Agriculture is the second largest workforce sector in Ventura County, providing 31,000 jobs with an estimated 20,000 of those workers employed on local farms. Quality shelter for the people who tend and harvest the crops ties directly to the success of our economy,” Hugh Ralston, VCCF president and CEO, stated in the release. “This has been a priority for VCCF and our donors for the past decade, and we are pleased to have this opportunity.”
The Ventura County Fund for Farmworker Housing at VCCF has granted more than $465,000 for this priority since it was founded in 2003. The fund has supported the building of the 14th Street Development farmworker units in Santa Paula, Citrus Place in Piru and Villa Cesar Chavez in Oxnard. It has provided pre-development funds for the proposed Hansen Trust Farmworker Apartments in Ventura.
“Partnering with the Ventura County Housing Trust Fund has given the community another resource,” Ralston said.
The Ventura County Housing Trust Fund was formed in 2006 when voters passed the affordable-housing measure, Proposition 1C. Farmworker housing was identified as one of its priorities.
“Farmworkers play a critical role in putting quality, low-cost food on our tables. They deserve clean, safe, housing at an affordable rate,” Linda Braunschweiger, CEO of the Ventura County Housing Trust Fund, stated in the release. “The average income of these farmworkers is about $22,000 a year. Yet the average apartment rent in Ventura County far exceeds the recommended 30 percent of income to pay for housing.”
The fund was built when VCCF partnered with the Housing Trust Fund in the “2013 for the 3:1 in ’13 Challenge” where VCCF dedicated $25,000 to the farmworker housing effort. That was matched with another $25,000 from community donors, including major support from Driscoll’s Charitable Fund, Brokaw Nursery Inc. and Brokaw Ranch Co. In turn, VCHTF matched that $50,000 to create a $100,000 permanent source of funding.
“The Ventura County Housing Trust Fund looks for potential partners with goals similar to our own to help fulfill our mission of increasing the supply of affordable housing in Ventura County,” Mary Ann Krause, 2013 VCHTF chair and former mayor of Santa Paula, stated in the release. “Partnerships can be tricky, but VCCF is such a solid, professionally run operation, we were completely comfortable suggesting collaboration.”
For more information, go to vccf.org and vchousingtrustfund.org.
ABOUT VCHTF: Ventura County Housing Trust Fund is an independent 501c3 nonprofit corporation. Its mission is to support more housing choices by generating and leveraging financial resources and working in partnership with the public, private and nonprofit sectors throughout Ventura County. VCHTF is led by a diverse board of directors representing private industry, banking, legal, education, affordable housing developers, housing advocates and local government.
ABOUT VCCF: VCCF invests the charitable capital that drives the philanthropic engines of Ventura County. Its portfolio performance ranks in the top 11 of all community foundations in the United States for long-term growth. With total assets of more than $135 million, as of March. 31, its mission is to promote and enable philanthropy to improve our community for good for ever, which it does through grantmaking, scholarships and training at its Center for Nonprofit Leadership. It owns the VCCF Nonprofit Center in Camarillo —- a place where nonprofits and the community can come together to work together. Visit vccf.org or call 805-988-0196.